Routine Interaction
by Hawk Clowd
Summary: K and Eiri pass a few earlymorning moments with coffee and conversation.


**Title:** Routine Interaction

**Author:** Ren

**Disclaimer:** Gravitation is not mine, but I'm pretty sure everyone already knew that. Disclaimers are just a formality -- adding it doesn't really make this legal, you know.

**Blood Type:** White tea

**Warnings:** Excessive reading of this fic may cause cramps in small animals and women.

**Author's Note: **I was awake the other night trying to finish a poetry project and desperately needed something to distract me from my sleepiness, so I bribed DC (also known as Dave, DarkChylde, and AmbroseWulf) into rp-ing with me. In return for doing that, he would be given the fic or icon of his choice, and he chose a fic featuring Eiri and K. I'm not sure this is what he was looking for, but it's what ended up being written, so I suppose it will have to do. I hope you like it, DC!

---

Eiri drummed his fingers against the tabletop. K traced the contours of his magnum with a careful finger. Coffee brewed. A clock ticked. No one spoke.

The sound of running water made both Eiri and K look back down the hall toward the bathroom. The latter frowned.

"He's taking a bath?"

Eiri shrugged. "I guess."

K's frown pulled into a scowl. "He's already late. Why is he taking a bath _now_?"

"Because he wasn't given the time to take one last night, I suppose." Eiri's fingers curled around his still-empty coffee mug briefly before they realized there was nothing there to warm them and went back to drumming against the table. "It's not my fault -- you kept him late."

"Not _that_ late."

"Late enough." The coffee finished brewing and Eiri stood to fill his mug. Without looking back at K, Eiri filled another mug, to which he added a few spoonfuls of sugar and a bit of milk. He passed that one to K, who took it gratefully and sipped at it. Eiri took his own mug of coffee -- black -- and sat down again. Back to the routine.

"If you would just wait until the weekends to... wear him out," K started, "he would stop sleeping through his alarm and he wouldn't be late every day." That he would stop barging in on the couple should this actually occur was left unspoken.

"So you say." Eiri shrugged. That he wasn't going to put his libido on a schedule just because he was sick of having to talk to K every morning while Shuichi got ready for work was also left unsaid.

"I don't suppose he had the time to finish his new lyrics then, either," K stated.

Eiri shrugged, his fingers pausing in their drumming for a brief moment. "I doubt it."

"I see." K set the magnum down on the table to cup his mug in both hands. It was cold that morning; Eiri's apartment was still warming up. "Too bad. He'll have to stay late again tonight, I suppose."

"Whatever."

Snatches of lyrics and song came from the bathroom, accompanied by a few loud splashes. K quirked an eyebrow. Eiri rolled his eyes.

K sipped the coffee again. "I didn't shoot him this morning," he said cheerfully.

"I saw." Eiri's fingers tapped against his coffee mug, greedily leeching warmth from the coffee through the ceramic. "No blood. I appreciate that."

"Mmm." K nodded levelly. "It's a bitch to clean."

Eiri shared the nod.

They were quiet again. From the bathroom, Shuichi sang the chorus of 'Rage Beat' and 'Spicy Marmalade', back to back. Both Eiri and K cringed a little when Shuichi decided, for some reason unknown to either of them, to sing in a falsetto.

K's voice was strained. "He's..."

"Stupid?" Eiri supplied.

"That's not the word I was looking for."

"Then he's a fairly decent piece of ass," Eiri said, offering another suggestion with a casual shrug. "It's as good a description as any."

K frowned, listened to the grinding falsetto for a moment more, and then clenched his jaw. His fingers twitched and he reached to pick up his gun again. He hefted it thoughtfully. "He's very... talented. I guess that's the word."

"He's an idiot," Eiri corrected. He picked up his coffee mug and drank from it for the first time that morning. "Maybe the next time you shoot him you should make it count."

K frowned, more because of the criticism than the suggestion. "I always make it count."

"I bet you do."

"Mmm." K frowned and listened as the singing died down. "Is he almost done?"

Eiri shrugged. "He might be. I don't know."

"I'll shoot him for real if he doesn't finish soon," K warned.

"I don't care," Eiri answered. He leaned back in his chair, coffee still between his hands. He always spent more time holding the mug than drinking from it.

"You'll have lost -- and I quote -- a fairly decent piece of ass."

"That's fine. I'll get a new one."

K rolled his eyes. "Someday I'll threaten to shoot him and you'll actually act like you care," he said, gesturing with his gun.

"I wouldn't bet on it." Eiri sipped his coffee again, completely disregarding the weapon K was waving around in his kitchen.

"We'll see." The bathroom door opened and shut again. K glanced over his shoulder, waited a moment, and then downed the rest of his coffee. He stood and set the mug down by the sink. "Time to go," he said cheerfully. "See you tomorrow morning."

Eiri waved a hand indifferently. K turned and went to the bedroom to drag Shuichi outside. The singer cried and begged dramatically for K to unhand him or Eiri to save him, either one, but neither K nor Eiri paid him any mind. Once K and Shuichi were gone, Eiri put his coffee aside and went back to bed.

**---end---**


End file.
